Chinese courier company YTO Express has signed an investment agreement with Jiaxing City in northern Zhejiang province to build the company’s new logistics hub at Jiaxing Airport.
The first phase of the project will cover 96 hectares and will cost 7.3 billion yuan ($1.08 billion) and the total investment will be 12.2 billion yuan ($1.8 billion).
Construction is expected to start this year and the hub will be operational by 2021. It will be YTO’s global operations base, research and development centre and settlement centre for YTO Express and YTO Airlines.
By 2030, YTO plans to have 50 freighters at Jiaxing Airport, with an annual air cargo capacity of 1.1 million tonnes. By 2050, cargo and mail capacity is expected to reach 2.4 million tonnes.
YTO will also use rail, road and water transport infrastructure in Jiaxing to boost its logistical capacity in the Yangtze River Delta area.
The group says it chose Jiaxing because more than 40 per cent of domestic and international express delivery is concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Jiaxing is also located near enough and in close proximity to Shanghai and Hangzhou airports, the ports of Jiaxing Port, Yangshan Port, Ningbo Port and inland waterways.
Investment in Chinese e-commerce is coming fast, as in June, Alibaba Group’s logistics subsidiary Cainiao Network announced it was leading a new $1.5 billion logistics centre at Hong Kong International Airport. Cainiao is setting up a joint venture with YTO Express and China National Aviation Corporation.
